“Coffee is an acquired taste, just like wine. When coffee cools, it puts you on a journey”
Melbourne-based coffee roaster extraordinaire MATTY DE ANGELIS likes his coffee filter black and thinks you should give it a try too.
One would be most curious if Matty is a serial coffee drinker. When asked how many coffees he has in a day, he says “none”. However, cupping, he does every day. Matty De Angelis is a Melbourne-based roaster, Q-grader brewer and blogger. With his construction engineer background, stints at The Bean Alliance and London’s Climpsons & Sons, and, his parents owned a cafe, carved the way for him to become very passionate about roasting and brewing.
As one of handful coffee roasters with a penchant of teaching his craft to his avid coffee drinkers, customers and fans—he also runs a very serious (and informative) blog about brewing, appropriately named Brewing is for Everyone. On his blog, the aesthetic and layout are clean and minimal, in contrast with Matty’s style, tattoos and (occasional) blonde hair makes the blog and all of his brewing visually appealing and look so effortlessly cool.
We caught up with him at his base, Padre Coffee on Brunswick to learn more about that perfect brew and all things coffee.
“90% of coffee drinkers are drinking milk-based coffee,” says Matty matter-of-factly “but” as he continues, “more and more people are starting to embrace filter coffee”. In the last two years, there has been a jump from about 12%-25% in filtered coffee. Leading the way for this new wave of black coffee drinkers—is due to enthusiasts like Matty.
“Coffee is like wine, you have to acquire a taste for it. Find the fine line between bitter, acidic and sweet”. He further explains that one of the reasons most of us coffee drinkers are accustomed to milk and sugar (essentially to drown the bitterness, if you ask me) is because when we were young, we are acclimatized to things that are sweet, like milk, juice and candy. But as we get older, and as our palates become more experienced, we are more open to a new richness in the flavours and aromas coffee possess.
Just like wine, there is no such thing as the perfect cup of coffee, to the general audience anyway. It’s all subjective because we are all unique and different. How we react and decipher the taste and memories it evokes will make the experience different. However, Matty agrees that in general, flavours that resonate with the mass coffee drinkers would be chocolate, honey and nuts. We also learn that there is more depth to coffee than just hazelnut or Irish cream. Cupping and getting to know the complexity of the beans can be appreciated profoundly, just like one would with wine, spirits, cigars and perfume. Coffee can be expressed in a myriad of flavours, common and notable ones include chocolate, hazelnut, nutmeg, honey. Due to the acidity of coffee, it can also have fruity elements such as cherry, raisin, pineapple. And, surprisingly, coffee can also have elements of the less desirable, tastes of rubber, meaty, brothy can also exist in a coffee taster’s palate. That’s a lot to think about in just a cup of brew! We say, next time you are at your favourite cafe, don’t order your latte, give the local brew a try and taste if you can find more to it than just bitter and sweet.